Am I the only one thinking that Shingeki no Kyojin is a bit overrated?

I haven't seen it yet, but you're probably right. I'm just expecting a fun, somewhat dark, action series when I finally do get around to it.

It's not fun, really. It's a serious show that looks great action-wise because it blends CG use properly with the setting to make very fast-paced, acrobatic fights. In terms of dark, it's pure dread and death. There are so many characters killed off I was unprepared for it until the very end. It's supremely dark compared to what you might be thinking. The first season just ended, too, and while it isn't my top 5 or anything I do think it was very good (the fact that it dragged on in some places and since there was very little humor hurt it).

_________________

gomorro wrote:

Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

SnK dark? More like, it has some dark moments, but the overall atmosphere of the series is pure teen-orientated shonen IMHO.

Actually, I do like these animes which bring you this feeling of darkness and uneasiness (let's say Berserk), but SnK doesn't even get closer to that. All the fillers, all the slow moments, all the self-pity, monologue sections just wipe out any trace of darkness or introspection.

SnK dark? More like, it has some dark moments, but the overall atmosphere of the series is pure teen-orientated shonen IMHO.

Actually, I do like these animes which bring you this feeling of darkness and uneasiness (let's say Berserk), but SnK doesn't even get closer to that. All the fillers, all the slow moments, all the self-pity, monologue sections just wipe out any trace of darkness or introspection.

SnK dark? More like, it has some dark moments, but the overall atmosphere of the series is pure teen-orientated shonen IMHO.

Actually, I do like these animes which bring you this feeling of darkness and uneasiness (let's say Berserk), but SnK doesn't even get closer to that. All the fillers, all the slow moments, all the self-pity, monologue sections just wipe out any trace of darkness or introspection.

Whoa, no. Zelki, if you haven't seen it already, do it. When I think teen-oriented shonen, I think Bleach. This is definitely not like that. "Some" dark moments? Family deaths, friend deaths, people going psycho, dismemberment, destruction, humanity backstabbing each other in desperate hours, barely any humor or gags... dude the thing's far closer to Beserk in these respects than to any shonen. Nothing is treated in some sort of light-hearted way, and even with twists there is no real saving grace - there is still constant fear of getting killed.

Wikipedia says it's shonen but I can't even agree with that.

_________________

gomorro wrote:

Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

Its probably been mentioned already somewhere in the thread, but Genocyber is... repulsive. In the best possible way, of course. I'm a sucker for a lot of the stuff that Manga Video put out in the early to mid 90's.

This might seem like Manga 101 for some people, but shounen is more of a demographic than a genre. Sure, there are tropes and styles that most shounen series use, but they certainly aren't ironclad. For example, Death Note, with all of it's dark themes and psychological rhetoric, was technically shounen as it ran in Weekly Shounen Jump with Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece (how's that for mood whiplash?).

Attack on Titan is considered shounen because the manga ran in a shounen magazine, specifically Bessatsu Shounen Magazine, which also gave us other "shounen" titles like Flowers of Evil, Mardock Scramble, a LovePlus adaptation, and Joshiraiku. Yeah.

Essentially, calling something "shounen" is using a shorthand for a general set of expectations about the audience of that series (male, roughly 10-17), but that doesn't necessarily define a genre or even what we might consider to be kid friendly. Remember, Fist of the North Star, City Hunter, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Love Hina are all technically "shounen" as well.

As a side note, I haven't seen Attack on Titan, and I kind of don't plan to anytime soon for two reasons. One, I'm just not watching as much anime as I used to and there are other series that are higher priority at the moment, and Two, I really have to be in the right mood for that level of "grimdark." I'm not saying that "grimdark" is bad, but it can be exhausting for me, so I'm holding out for when I ready for that kind of show.

SwampSlimer wrote:

Its probably been mentioned already somewhere in the thread, but Genocyber is... repulsive. In the best possible way, of course. I'm a sucker for a lot of the stuff that Manga Video put out in the early to mid 90's.

I have indeed. Never saw part 2, but the first one was enough. Just meaningless violence.

No, no, nononononononono NO! If you've seen part 1, you HAVE to watch part 2. Why? Because it's WORSE! It is so bad that it has to be seen to be believed. Part 1 was bad, yes, but part 2 is so bad, it's almost fascinating. It makes you wonder how on earth anyone could have thought this was a good idea, a story worth telling. You won't even laugh (at least I didn't, I was speechless).

Now perhaps you feel like you're already burned over losing one hour over this series, and I suppose I couldn't blame you for finding a better use for your time. But I really do think that if you're going to watch the first part, you might as well see just how far down it goes (pretty dang far!).

I've been disappointed by anime (Final Fantasy: Unlimited). I've even been outraged at how a series ended (Kino's Journey; it's a good series, just, that ending, ugh). But MD Geist plummets past "so bad it's good" into territory that makes it hard to believe it was even created (let alone licensed and localized). It's like the Daikatana or Lulu of anime. Never have I seen a series not simply be nearly plotless, but highly dedicated to destroying what plot it could possibly have. MD Geist is so anti-plot, I'm surprised it doesn't create a black hole upon being seen.

On a very belated and related note, I just finished watching the first two Madoka Magica movies. While they were pretty much exactly as lazy as I expected (if there was any new animation, I sure didn't notice it), they still proved to be extremely effective in terms of delivering the narrative properly, though that's hard to screw up when the total runtime for both movies is about the same as the 12-episode series itself. So yeah, they're pretty much exactly the same as the TV series, but given that said series is pretty fuckin' legendary in quality, as noted here, I can hardly complain. The emotional impact hasn't weakened whatsoever. You can't go wrong either way.

And in other news, holy mother of fuck there's a new season of Hajime no Ippo and it's been going on for at least 7 weeks now and none of you motherfuckers told me. I'ma have to choke a bitch and then sit down to watch it. Because I fucking love Hajime no Ippo. Well, most of the time...

I checked out the line-up for this season a month or so ago and it was maybe 20 moe shoes vs 2 shoes of actual substance (and by that I mean there was actually an inkling of substance present).

_________________

gomorro wrote:

Yesterday was the birthday of school pal and I met the chick of my sigh (I've talked about here before, the she-wolf I use to be inlove with)... Maaan she was using a mini-skirt too damn insane... Dude you could saw her entire soul every time she sit...

Miyazaki can have some pretty blunt and controversial opinions, but I admit I'm pretty much with him on this topic. I'm an older anime fan (being a fan of classic Toonami now qualifies as old these days), so the advent of "cute girls being cute" and other "data" heavy series feels like something of a plague at the moment. I admit that I haven't been watching that much anime anymore, and I haven't seen anything from the past two years, and I suspect that one reason is because of this glut of check-list-fulfilling shows (though I know that there are a handful of shows worth watching in there).

However, I do think that there is another problem, and that's a severe lack of ambition brought upon by success. You see, most anime these days is funded through big corporations, and they like to see guarantees. Therefore, the shows that get made are ones that satisfy those guarantees, so we keep getting the same old "safe" characters in "safe" environments (read: high school) with maybe a gimmick or two to help them stand out from all the other "safe" shows, with the idea that they're make their money from DVD sales and merchandising because the fanbase seems to eat this stuff up, regardless of how repetitive it may seem. And as a result, pumping out the same kind of stuff over and over becomes "good business," and that's a practical and reasonable approach to making anything, really (see the video games industry as another example).

Of course, that's no consolation for us, the long-time fans who recognize that ambition is what helps medium stay vibrant and relevant. We know we wouldn't have some of our great franchises or studios if their initial series didn't take chances (Mobile Suit Gundam, Nausicaa, Evangelion, etc.). The problem is that we are capable of seeing things in the long-term, while these corporations are satisfied with the money they can make right now, and now that they seem to have some kind of formula, it's been lather-rinse-repeat for them for quite a while. There may have been a time when studios tried to make a series have timeless qualities, but it seems like they're mostly no longer interested in trying to do amazing things with the medium anymore. (Also, their priority audience is their own people, the Japanese, so they have even less interest in satisfying fans from around the world, despite the fact that there are plenty of us now.)

However, another way of looking at it is that we're simply deep in the rut of a trend. I imagine that in the late 80s, your pitch would be laughed out of the room if you didn't guarantee a set of big robots that could be sold as toys. Perhaps with enough patience we'll see this trend fade, probably because some new anime will explode and every publisher will be trying to make their own version of that (which may have happened with Attack on Titan! We'll have to see).

“You see, whether you can draw like this or not, being able to think up this kind of design, it depends on whether or not you can say to yourself, ‘Oh, yeah, girls like this exist in real life.’”

“If you don’t spend time watching real people, you can’t do this, because you’ve never seen it.”

Aaaand boom. The master tells it like this.

Any industry that exists only to reference itself is bound to full of shit, just like what happens to black metal. The ultra-violent and edgy craze was just as shitty as current moe shows, but moe don't have the "manly" aspect to appeal to neckbearded western nerds raised on Warhammer and whatnot, so it gets much more hate. It's also boring as hell, which helps a lot.My main grip has always been with harem shows though. I think there is no bigger plague than that inane, self-insert bait for hormonal fucks.

Anyway, I'm at the end of Fate/Zero, but I'm holding off watching the last few eps because I'm afraid they will be too hardcore for me. I'm sure there will be no dreams, only tears now. Kiritsugu is like a modern, japanese Jesus, if Jesus was a sociopathic and cold-blooded killer.It's a wonder what some good writing can do to a series. Fate/Stay wasn't bad, but it was a clusterfuck of powerlevels and asspulls and unfortunate, poorly inserted otaku bait. They did a real good job with this one. Nasuverse's gems were always Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai though, too bad the former never got a proper adaptation.

_________________

Acrobat wrote:

it's better to have Lemmed and lost than to have never Lemmed at all..

Anyway, I'm at the end of Fate/Zero, but I'm holding off watching the last few eps because I'm afraid they will be too hardcore for me. I'm sure there will be no dreams, only tears now. Kiritsugu is like a modern, japanese Jesus, if Jesus was a sociopathic and cold-blooded killer.It's a wonder what some good writing can do to a series. Fate/Stay wasn't bad, but it was a clusterfuck of powerlevels and asspulls and unfortunate, poorly inserted otaku bait. They did a real good job with this one.

I despised Fate/Stay Night. Mostly, anyway. But yes, Fate/Zero is freaking amazing, and those last few episodes--while slightly anticlimactic--really drive home how great it is.

Anyway, I'm at the end of Fate/Zero, but I'm holding off watching the last few eps because I'm afraid they will be too hardcore for me. I'm sure there will be no dreams, only tears now. Kiritsugu is like a modern, japanese Jesus, if Jesus was a sociopathic and cold-blooded killer.It's a wonder what some good writing can do to a series. Fate/Stay wasn't bad, but it was a clusterfuck of powerlevels and asspulls and unfortunate, poorly inserted otaku bait. They did a real good job with this one.

I despised Fate/Stay Night. Mostly, anyway. But yes, Fate/Zero is freaking amazing, and those last few episodes--while slightly anticlimactic--really drive home how great it is.

I was talking about the visual novel anyway. I wouldn't touch the anime adaptation with a 10ft long pole.

_________________

Acrobat wrote:

it's better to have Lemmed and lost than to have never Lemmed at all..

Yeah, you'd think with an ending theme from my favorite band in the universe would make a difference, but I haven't gotten around to it (I've read some of the manga, though; the stuff's insane). It's on the list. Along with the 50-bazillion other shows I want to watch.

(Actually, it's probably closer to 200, but it's mostly older stuff that won't help me feel more relevant about the current anime landscape.)

(Actually, actually, I haven't even been watching that much anime. I've been too addicted to watching video game speedrunners and fighting game tournaments on Twitch.tv. I just find that stuff thoroughly engaging.)

For those that are unaware, Legend of the Galactic Heroes is getting a new adaption. I'm personally hoping that it won't be awful like I'm expecting it to be, but we'll see. If you haven't watched the original adaption for some absurd reason, go ahead and do yourself a favour and give it a go. It's easily one of the best shows that I've ever seen, and it's definitely a very unique space opera (at least as far as anime goes). It's pretty long (two movies, 110 episodes of the main story OVA and around 52 episodes of the side stories), but it's absolutely great.

I finished watching Usagi Drop on Wednesday. It's a warm anime and I enjoyed the progression of it. It's only 11 episodes and I recommend it to single parents raising a child as that's the main premise. Mind you, you don't have to be a parent to enjoy this.

I finished watching Usagi Drop on Wednesday. It's a warm anime and I enjoyed the progression of it. It's only 11 episodes and I recommend it to single parents raising a child as that's the main premise. Mind you, you don't have to be a parent to enjoy this.

The BD for the third Madoka movie came out, and damn, I was blown away. I pretty much expected a mediocre movie that would feel more like a side story and a cash-in, but man, I was completely wrong. Visually speaking, it's pretty stunning with tons of trippy stuff that rivals Utena, and the animation is gorgeous and amazingly fluid. I can't really go much more into detail without handing out spoilers, but it was one fantastic film and I consider it the pinnnacle of the franchise.

Anyways, I'm pretty exicited for Jojo part 3 and season 2 of Mushishi next season as well.

Does anyone besides me on this forum thread like Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni? To me, that show has tech death lyrical content potential with the story and charac0ters.

I don't really care for it. Being a fan of horror films, I found the horror elements in Higurashi very awkward and weak. Not being a fan of the art style and characters didn't help matters, either. The story was intriguing, though.

Does anyone besides me on this forum thread like Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni? To me, that show has tech death lyrical content potential with the story and charac0ters.

I'm playing the visual novel. I can't finish it though, it's longer than a bible, and I don't want to skip parts and watch the anime already. Did the first two chapters, Onikakushi and Watanagashi, and now I'm through the third. My main complaint is that it takes too fucking long for things to get going, with hours of wacky slice of life stuff. I don't mind this kind of development, but the way it is, it's too much for my taste. But when things get real, damn, it blows your knees. Still I have a long way until I can judge the series.

_________________

Acrobat wrote:

it's better to have Lemmed and lost than to have never Lemmed at all..

Just finished Hajime no Ippo: Rising not too long ago, and I enjoyed it so much that it has officially broken my recent review dry spell. New Challenger was a nightmare for me as a fan of the franchise, but this new season completely did a 180 and redeemed the franchise (despite the fact that it was made by the exact same people who screwed it up in the first place).